Metamorph's gambit
by Sororita
Summary: In a last ditch effort to save the world, Tonks goes back in time to give Harry the knowledge he needs to defeat Riddle once and for all, but, fails to isolate her knowledge from her memories. this has some negative consequences.
1. Chapter 1: the escape and meeting

Just a story that's been bouncing around in my head.

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Chapter one: the escape and meeting

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Nymphadora Tonks had run out of time. Her plans, grand in scale and nearly impossible had to be rushed to the finish line, unable to finish her final preparation. Separating knowledge from memory. As her wards fell she charged the outside runes of her circle and lit the 5 candles surrounding it. As her door was being knocked she slit her palm and quickly filled the sacrificial bowl. When the Neo-Death Eaters, lead by a thrice living Tom Riddle, aka Lord voldemort, stormed into the room she smiled. And broke the containment rune to trigger the ritual. A torrent of blue flames burst out from the circle incinerating the invading parties and ripping a hole in the fabric of reality centered around Tonks.

The man known as Lord Voldemort was the only thing left alive within a kilometer of the blast. His quick reflexes and considerable skill having allowed him to raise a strong enough shield to deflect most of the blast around him. Though angered at losing some of his most powerful personnel, and the metamorph. It was an acceptable outcome. The thorn in his side was gone, she had been the only real threat since the death of harry potter more than 50 years prior.

He turned to apparate back to his base of operations and nothing happened. He tried again. When he failed again he tried to activate the portkey he kept on himself to make his way back. It, too, did not work. Incensed by his magics refusal to cooperate, he brought forth his wand, and the most powerful of the deathly hallows, and cast a charm to discover any wards to prevent transportation magic. There was no response. He tried again and again, but he might as well have been waving a twig for all the good that it did him.

Tom Riddle's anger was at its peak when the armored trucks rolled up. Him standing out like a beacon in the blasted land that was the crater Tonks' ritual had created caused him to be suspect number one. He turned to see the muggles moving up and he tried, and failed, to release his anger yet again. The Magic response team, recognizing both him and what he was attempting to do, responded appropriately and filled the air between them with lead. Without the use of magic the result was obvious. Tom riddle fell and died. Never knowing why his magic had failed him.

Tonks was drifting through the aether outside of reality. Her ritual had torn a hole in reality and flung her through towards the past and a specific date august 2nd, 1992. And a specific place, the smallest bedroom at number 4 Privet Drive, Surrey. She knew harry potter was right there right then. She had planned on giving him her knowledge, and just the knowledge, before she faded into non-existence due to past-alteration, but that plan was no longer an option, she had at most a minute, and as little as 7 seconds, before the universe corrected itself. She just hoped that Harry could forgive her. That much life experience was bound to alter him.

Her plan had been in the works for the past 10 years. That was when she first came upon the theorycrafting that had supposed the possibility of long distance time travel. It required an immense amount of magic though. Far more than any person could maintain. So i needed to be an artifact or a ritual. And a ritual would be easier to design. So she set about making a ritual that would allow her to travel to where she knew he would be, be alone, have knowledge of magic, and be as far back in time as possible with all three requisites were met. She had underestimated the amount of magic it would need. It absorbed all of the magic within a kilometer of the ritual, unlike most rituals or artifacts which sip on the ambient magic to work, or in the case of time turners which gulp, the ritual acted like a drain at the bottom of the ocean and sucked in magic by the megaliter, not a scrap of it was left anywhere around where the ritual was located. The flames devouring it and feeding on biomass to supplement the magic taken. The area around her hideout would be a barren wasteland for the next thousand years, had that reality not been destroyed by her traveling into the past.

After what felt like an eternity Tonks found herself in a small dark bedroom looking at a small boy who had the weight of the world on his shoulders.

"Sorry." tonks said the last word she would ever utter and placed her wand at harry's Third-eye Chakra and forced all of her magic and memories into him. The shock of it caused harry to pass out and collapse to the floor in a boneless heap. Tonks now starting to fade losing her solidity, placed him onto the small bed her last sight was that of the small boys body shifting in a way only a metamorph's could into an older and obviously more feminine form. Her last thought was 'shite.' then she faded fully and ceased to exist.

Harry awoke the next morning, looked down and said "shite." she couldn't deny that all of Tonks' memories had changed her personal view of herself. Which was bad, because all metamorphs reverted to their self-image while unconscious. She needed to do something. She knew that the weasleys, bless them, would be rescuing her some time in the next few days. She'd need to come up with a plausible story beforehand.

Even though she knew she had had a radical change in personality the weight of years Tonks had pushed onto her had almost overwritten her memories as Harry Potter. She was still herself. Mostly. 81 years of memories of being a woman had certainly altered her self-image, but fortunately she still had raven hair and emerald eyes. She still looked like a scion of the Potter family, Albeit a female one. And definitely older than 12.

'Well then, I guess first things first' she then started to look around for… 'ah, thats right, they locked everything up. I can't really do anything until the rescue.'


	2. Chapter 2: the rescue and The Burrow

so then two chapters in less than 24 hours. don't expect this often. my next chapter will be at least a few days.

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Chapter 2: the rescue and the burrow.

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Harry had been bored out of her mind. The only thing she could do was practice her clemency, which helped, but she had been waiting 3 days. Changing into her old self each day for the one bathroom break she got, because lord knows what they would do if they found out she was even more magical than they had previously thought. She was hoping tonight was the night, so she had shifted earlier that evening and was staying up.

When he was about to doze off there was a knocking on the window. He went up to it to see the twins and Ron in a flying car, 'oh right, Harry told me about this… I told Tonks. I really need to get my head on straight." he opened the window and said, "Hey guys, you're going to need to do something about the bars, and can one of you help me get downstairs to grab my stuff?"

Fred, or was it George the light was horrible, was at the wheel and nodded while the other was tying a rope around the middle bar to pull the whole thing off. Once that was done he pulled right next to the window and parked it then all three came into the room.

"Harry, glad to see you, mate, we're busting you out of here. After all that stuff you said, and then no letters. We were worried about you."

"They locked up Hedwig and wouldn't let me out of my room except to go to the bathroom. C'mon we need to go get my school stuff then we can hit the road." he turned to the twins, "you know how to pick locks, right?"

Fred, this time she knew it was Fred thanks to the freckle pattern, nodded,"Yeah, we thought that might be the case, even grabbed some tools. Me and George'll go get them, go ahead and get what else you need in here and we'll be back in a jiffy."

Harry gathered his meager belongings together, he let Hedwig out and placed her cage in the back of the car, and as soon as the twins had gotten his trunk there he placed the clothes he wanted to take with him in it and they helped him fit through the window.

"Alright chaps, I believe it is time to make like a tree and get the fuck out of here."

All three redheads turned to him, "Harry! I am shocked at your language!" George, mockingly, said. They laughed, then piled into the car "onward to the burrow!"

They managed to make it back just as dawn was breaking, with any luck there would be getting in just before their mother woke up for the day.

"Now Harry, if mom asks you were able to wander here on your own, and we just so happened to be up getting a glass of water at the same time. Got it?" Fred instructed as they walked into the kitchen

"Yes, Yes, you know she will never believe you, right?"

A woman's voice, "Molly's most likely." Harry thought, sounded from the living room as they walked in, "That's right Harry, dear. Now I'm sure you're tired so you can go upstairs, the top floor, and you can sleep in Ron's bed today, he can take the cot."

The boys froze, "shoot! Mom we had to rescue him, there were bars on his window! Like he was a prisoner in Azkaban." Fred started.

George finished, "And he didn't have any of his school stuff, not even a textbook. He had to leave!"

Molly didn't seem very swayed though her eyes did soften when she heard of the conditions he had been in. Harry decided now was the best time to get it over with. "Ma'am I really did need to get out of there, see over the summer I had something happen to me, and if they had found out they might have killed me."

Molly frowned, "I'm sure you're exaggerating, dear, what happened?"

Harry was never going to tell them what actually happened, "I went to sleep the night of my birthday and when I woke up I was different. I looked like this." he changed to his self-image, "I freaked out, but I think that motivated me, because I was able to figure out how to change my form, I can even look like other people if I concentrate hard enough." she swapped to look like Ron so that there were now two sets of twins in the room.

Everyone else gasped. Fred and George looked excited, Ron seemed jealous and Molly had a worried look on her face.

"Oh dear, this is pretty major. Metamorphmagi are exceedingly rare. There's only one other that I know about that's currently alive. We'll need to let dumbledore know as soon as possible. In the meantime: Ron, grab your sleeping bag and the pup-tent, you'll be sleeping in there until we figure out what to do with harry. Fred, George, don't think you aren't in trouble too, you are going back there to degnome the garden until it's clear, tell Ron that he's to join you after the tent is set up."

Ron grumbled and did as he was told, the twins decided discretion was the better part of valor and left immediately.

"Now then, Harry, you can go sleep in Ron's room for now, it's at the very top of the stairs. I'll talk to dumbledore and see what we can do for you."

Harry thanked her and slowly climbed the stairs to Ron's room, and as she walked inside the door she heard a scuffling sound like a…"RAT!" with the sort of reflexes that can only be expected from a life of war, her wand flew to her hand and sent the rat flying towards her, she conjured a jar and sealed it over when the rat had ended its flight with a satisfying "Thunk!" before he had a chance to recover from the impromptu flight harry had made the jar unbreakable.

She looked at the terrified rat, "Looks like the jig is up, Pettigrew. And don't try to break out of there, you'll only hurt yourself."

Harry rushed downstairs to find dumbledore already in the kitchen talking to Molly.

"Speak of the devil. Harry, what happened, and why is scabbers in a jar?" Molly saw her first

"Ma'am, Professor, I think scabbers is an animagus. If you could please set up a circle, so he can't escape then reveal him if he is."

Dumbledore not used to how harry is, and wanting to stop any sort of attempted spying, quickly set up the circle and harry opened the jar and dumped the rat onto the ground. One quick spell and there was a rat-faced man lying there.

"Peter Pettigrew." in this life harry had never heard Dumbledore use his serious voice, it sent a shiver down her spine.

"Professor you have to understand I was terrified, black had just tried to kil-" he was cut off by a stunner.

"This is a very major find, harry, it will be almost as big of a news story as your development into a metamorph. I am going to head to the Ministry, to get Black back to the holding cells, in case he actually was innocent, and get to the bottom of this, then I will be back, possibly by this weekend, then we will discuss your living arrangements at school. Normally I would just tell everyone that the male you had withdrawn and a new, female, student was starting. But I don't believe that will be possible due to your fame."

"Alright, sir. I'm happy that justice will be done." she was too. She had had her suspicions that Dumbledore had left Sirius on purpose, but it seems that those were untrue and he really did believe that Sirius had been the secret keeper, then once it had been revealed untrue, he was wanted for breaking out of Azkaban, which was a kiss on sight order anyway, due to the amount of crazy that those who had escaped before had had.

Dumbledore walked outside with Pettigrew and pulled out a length of rope from his pocket, tied one end around Pettigrew's wrists and held on the other and turned it into a portkey then they both vanished.

The youngest male wandered over, "Mum, who was that with dumbledore?"

"I'm sorry, Ron, but it seems that your rat was an imposter. Peter Pettigrew, if Dumbledore is right." his mother told him.

Harry added, before Ron could work up a head of steam, "It's ok Ron, I'll get you something when we go to the alley to make it up to you, since it's kinda my fault you lost your pet."

"Can I get an owl?"

"Sure, I'll get you a fine owl, " Harry placated.

The twins' natural curiosity drew them over to the conversation and were horrified when they heard it, "why didn't we see him on it? We looked for Percy often enough, we should have seen him."

Thier mother chimed in, see him on what?"

The boys realized they had messed up, but capitulated to their mother, "We have this map of Hogwarts that shows the current position of everyone in the castle, ghosts animals, and animagi included. Because we spotted Mrs. Norris and Professor McGonagall when she was a cat, on it."

Harry thought about it, "Maybe he was one of the original makers? I'm sure something as useful as that map could be turned against the creators if in the wrong hands and they added failsafes."

The boys brightened, "Yeah that's probably it, the only question was which one was he? And who were the other three?"

"Don't worry about it, I'm sure we'll find out soon enough. Now I'm tired, so I'm going to bed. Have fun flinging gnomes." Harry waved back as she went into the house towards her temporary bed. She was going to scourgify the shit out of that bed before she touched it, hopefully not literally, though.

It was Saturday, and Dumbledore had managed to make it to the burrow. "Harry, my b...girl, how are you feeling? I think I have a plan for you, but it may require a bit of sacrifice on your part."

'Great, let's see i'll probably have to agree to a marriage contract to Malfoy or something stupid to be able to have a place to sleep in the castle.' harry placed a smile on her face, though. She'd deal with whatever shit dumbledore tried to shovel onto her. "Alright, sir, what do I have to do?"

"When you go to Diagonally next weekend you need to go to Gringotts and accept your head-of-house rank, responsibilities, and privileges. Its that last part that's important, it will allow you to claim one of our student suits. They were originally intended to allow new heads of houses a bit of privacy against intrusions into family matters, as well as helping to ensure the next generation as it were for the married ones. It should allow you the privacy you need, should you not want to reveal your status as metamorph to the school, lord knows young Nymphadora had trouble when it came out."

Harry asked, "What are my responsibilities?"

"Mainly just that you attend Wizengamot meetings unless you have a regent assigned, as well as in the case of war to take up arms and follow the King into battle. Though due to modern politics I doubt that will ever come to pass."

"Any other privileges I should know about?" harry had no memories dealing with this, as Nymphadora had a disowned mother so she would never need to learn it.

"Just that you have the right to create, accept, or deny marriage contracts with other heads-of-house for any of your members, as well as disown or re-own members or adopt new members. As you are the only living member of the ancient and noble house potter, they don't really mean anything."

"Alright, I'll do it, and maybe I can use the whole 'boy-who-lived' thing to get more votes against the bigots. I wonder if they'll change that now that I'm not a boy?"

"Dumbledore smiled, "Alright, I'll get the house-elves to clean up the closest Gryffindor HoH room for you in the fall. Now on to slight less pleasant matters.

That man you caught was indeed Peter. After questioning him in a zone-of-truth it was his duplicity was discovered and he is currently restrained in Azkaban and the man who had taken the blame is free and in St. Mungo's hospital, and in much better spirits and sanity than one would expect. In this case Justice was swift, just between you and me, I think madam Bones and he were an item back before that disastrous October night, and she drove the investigation much harder than I had expected. Getting it sorted out before anyone could tangle it up in red tape to protect their hides."

"That's great professor! When will I be able to see Sirius? Mrs. Weasley said that he was my godfather." Harry inquired

"Well he was in prison for a long time, harry, so I expect he'll have to stay in the hospital for a month or two at least to build up his social skills, and his health. So maybe over the winter holiday, though I'd expect some letters soon."

"Thanks, Professor. Was there anything else?"

Dumbledore leaned in conspiratorially, "If you could get me an invitation to dinner? Molly is truly the best cook in the world."

Harry laughed. "I'm sure she wouldn't mind it, though I bet you could get her to invite you more often if you brought dinner over every so often, I know they'd appreciate it. Have you ever had Pizza?"

Dumbledore looked quizzically, "I've heard it in passing but never had it."

"They'd love it. You do that and I guarantee the kids at least will love you all the more."

Dumbledore responded, "Well, I will certainly have to look into it."

Harry was able to get dumbledore an invitation to Mrs. Weasley's famous meatloaf dinner and they chatted about things not nearly so heavy as they had earlier. With Harry somewhat impressing Dumbledore with her theories about magic. Harry was trying to imply that she was a prodigy, so that nobody would question when she used super advanced magic, and it was working so far. Hermione would probably see straight through her. But she was already planning on confiding in the girl.


	3. Chapter 3: Greed Goblins

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Chapter 3: Greedy Goblins

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Harry knew that the goblins were no friend of her's because they were no friend of anyone's, even each other. But they were at least consistent. And that was important. Consistency means that you can always trust a dishonest person to be dishonest. And that's exactly how goblin society works. There's no such thing as the prisoner's dilemma in goblin culture because to try to protect the other by being silent would never cross their minds. The wizards have exploited this tendency to great effect. When the last goblin rebellion ended they were given control over wizarding monetary transactions and inheritances to placate them. But the wizards crafted the system so it was very skewed to the goblin at the top being the most successful. The system made it so that the goblins would never again rebel because they'd be too busy stabbing each other in the back. Harry wasn't sure if she could take advantage of it, too. But she did know that she would be able to trust that they wouldn't screw her out of her inheritance, due to the fact that it would do no goblin that did that any good, but could do them a lot of harm should they try it with the wrong wizard.

That was why she was completely calm when entering into the foyer of Gringotts, she could only stand to gain today. She walked up to the teller when it was her turn. "Hello, I'm Harry Potter, and I'd like to take over the head of house duties and responsibilities for my family."

The goblin looked at her (currently a him to hopefully make this easier) "Do you have a key, Mr. "potter"? Otherwise, you are wasting my time."

Prepared harry held up her key, "This should be it. It's to my trust vault. The other keys should be with the bank, as a safety precaution to be returned to me when I take up the Head of House mantle or make it to majority."

The goblin took the key, examined it handed it back and then said, "Seems to be in order, if you will step to the side another goblin will be here shortly to lead you to the Inheritor."

Harry did as she was told, fortunately, she had managed to talk everyone else into continuing on their way. The second goblin only took a few minutes to get there, and she was swiftly brought deeper into the bank to see the man in charge of passing titles and deeds to the proper people at the proper time.

"Inheritor, sir, there is a wizard who wishes to take on his titles early." the goblin she had been following called through a, presumably, magical intercom at the door she had been lead to.

"Must be the Potter boy, I've been expecting him since last year." came the voice on the other side. And the door slid open to reveal a room that looked like a jewelry store that specialized in rings.

Harry had expected something a bit more reserved, but she supposed the grandiose look was to impress the purebloods that came through there. 'No accounting for taste, I guess.'

"Sir, I'd like to take over my head of house title. I was just told of it this past week."

"Ignorance is no excuse, but better late than never, I guess. Now then I would normally make this a long and involved process with the lights and effects all the purebloods seem to expect, but it is almost tea-time and I do not want to be late. So simply sign this form," the Inheritor passed a few sheets over, "put your house ring on, and you may be on your way."

Harry read through the documents carefully, much to the indignance of the goblin helping her, finding nothing she hadn't expected she signed and traded the forms for a ring box he had gathered from the shelves behind him labeled "living lines" there were only a precious few (including empty ring boxes) in comparison to the rest of the room.

"I'll need the box back. The ring portkeys back to it when lost, stolen, or the wearer dies. It's how we keep track of important deaths here."

Slipping the ring on her finger, it sized immediately to a perfect fit, she handed the box back. "Is that all, sir?"

"Yes, yes, your other vault keys will be provided to you when you request. now I'm sure you can find your way back, I've got tea cooling since you took so long to read the forms. Good day."

Harry took that as her queue to leave and left to hopefully catch up with the Weasley's shopping

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was going to put the whole of the Diagon alley trip up at once, but I thought I should post something now, even if it was shorter, so that there will be at least an update a week.


	4. Chapter 4: Foppish Fools

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Chapter 4: foppish fools

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Harry treked down the cobblestone path towards where he thought the Weasley's would be, and caught them just as they were about to head into Flourish and Blotts bookseller. The store was much more crowded than usual, thanks to the appearance of Gilderoy Lockheart, who was to be the next Defense against the dark arts professor, and a well known author. Most anyone with a lick of sense knew his books were only based on real events, at best. So most wizards and witches took them as gospel.

Deciding to go ahead and get it over with Harry plunged into the throng, the weasleys filing in behind her.

Lockheart apparently didn't want to let a chance for publicity go to waste, though and called out, "Is that? Why yes it is, Harry Potter!" and moved to intercept Harry. Unfortunately for Lockhart, Harry had the reactions of an 80-plus-year-old war veteran who had been fighting for most of her life. So when lockheart went to put an arm around Harry's shoulders Harry reacted.

"JUDO THROW!" up and over Lockheart went, landing on the floor flat on his back with the wind knocked out of him. Harry wasn't done yet and followed it up by raising her arm up to punch downwards, her arm bulged with muscle and along each side a blue circles connected by a stripe ran. Her arm started to arc with electricity as she brought it down on the stunned man knocking him out with more than a little pain as a side effect.

Everyone in the bookshop stood stock still, stunned at what had just happened. "What? I don't know him from Adam and he comes up and puts an arm around my shoulders. That's creepy as hell."

"HARRY! You can't just assault people!" Mrs. Weasley seemed scandalized

"I've never even met him and he initiated physical contact that is way too familiar for even an acquaintance. That's like the first step in grooming a child for a pedofile. Get them desensitized to overly familiar contact, that way they won't talk when it goes further. I refuse to be associated with someone that does that kind of thing regardless of it being intentional or not."

"You still shouldn't use magic, you're underage!" she continued.

"Eh, what I did is a grey area." harry was going to continue, however a couple aurors and a trainee showed up.

"Please don't move and leave your wands where they are. I am Auror Shacklebolt and he is Auror Moody, We got a report of an assault."

The trainee, a young woman with florescent pink hair in a pixie cut added, "Auror Trainee Tonks responding too."

Harry was surprised to see tonks so soon after gaining the memories, sure she knew that tonks was a trainee at this time, but she wasn't sent to patrol Diagon until after moody had retired the next year, but not one to pass up a chance like that harry stated, "Yes, I would like to file an assault charge on one Gilderoy Lockhart, he attempted to place an arm around me in a far too familiar manner. But I stopped him with self defense."

Shacklebolt looked at the downed dandy, "I will need your wand for review for what spell you used to determine if you used excessive force. But I don't think you'll have any trouble with underage magic, self defense or the defense of another is listed as an exception."

"I didn't use my wand. I used a mixture of judo and metamorphic ability. He got shocked unconscious and will probably stay that way for an hour or two.

Tonks perked up at that "Metamorphic? I didn't think there were any others on the islands, what did you do?"

"I restructured the muscles in my arm to mimic the muscle structure of a magical electric eel found in the amazon. Then just let my magic do its thing, delivering a powerful shock to my assaulter."

"I never thought to do animals, I thought you had to be an animagus to do that and you were only limited to one."

"Nah, if you can imagine it, and it's biologically possible, a metaporphmagum can imitate it. Though some are certainly more difficult than others."

Moody cut in, "As interesting as this all is. It's still wasting time. Tonks, secure lockhart for transport, then we need to head back. You still take long enough on the paperwork that you need to get started now if you want to be done by dinner time."

Harry had flashbacks, shuddered and thanked merlin that she wasn't working for a bureaucracy. The trainee Tonks and two aurors quickly gathered Lockhart and left and with him much of the crowd dispersed, Harry noticed Lucius Malfoy among them and noted that she needed to grab and destroy the diary before ginny could use it.

The rest of the day proceeded rather sedately, the news of her being a metamorph would probably make the newspaper tomorrow. But Harry didn't care that much, she knew it would come out eventually, better have it be learned of in a dramatic, and somewhat intimidating, manner than to have it appear that she was trying to use it to trick people.

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Metamorphmagum would be the gender neutral form metamorphmagus, the masculine form, and I feel it would be a more accurate term for it considering how mutable their bodies are.


	5. Chapter 5: souljar sundering

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Chapter 5: souljar sundering

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Harry was able to retrieve the diary, but not without ginny catching her. Fortunately she hadn't written in it yet, but she was still somewhat protective because she already considered it "hers"

"Look, ginny, I'm telling you it's evil. It was owned by voldemort, his name is right there on the cover. Let me destroy it and I'll get you a new one that you can pick out and get your name embossed on."

Ginny was wavering, and finally sighed, "alright, let's get dumbledore so he can examine it before you destroy it. "

Harry had already alerted dumbledore to some of what she was aware of about the future, though she was rather vague about how she knew it though she had mentioned a vision from a bleak future. So when they walked downstairs he was already waiting, and this time had 3 boxes of pizzas with him.

Dumbledore began speaking once they were on the ground floor"Good afternoon Harry, I trust you've secured the diary? I took your advice and brought those delicious muggle delicacies with me. Everyone can begin whilst we take care of the diary."

Harry replied,"Thanks professor, it shouldn't take long, it was his first so the defenses on it are the weakest."

The two of them left the Weasleys to the pizza, distracting them rather thoroughly. They trudged out about a hundred meters from house, just to be safe and placed the diary on the ground.

"Alright, I've got a spell that'll destroy it with zero chance of survival." harry pulled out her wand and went through a short sharp movement as though drawing a sword and placing it in front of her face with the tip pointing up just under her lips, then pronounced the incantation "Lux Telum" and blew across the tip. A bar of intense blue flames grew from her wand until it reached about a meter long. She moved then stabbed the diary bursting it into flames and causing a terrible screeching to be emitted, whether that was from the flash boiling ink that was coming off of it or the death of the soul shard she was unsure.

Once the screeching had stopped and all that was left was a pile of ash, which dumbledore scattered to prevent the creation of an ashwinder, dumbledore asked, "What spell is that? The only fire powerful enough to outright destroy a horcrux that I know of is fiend fire, but that is far too controlled to be that."

She was staring at the scorch mark, "It's a variation, all of the power none of the sentience. That variation will only produce a bar of flames that are tightly controlled. It's incredibly useful in dueling if you know how to use a sword with a weightless blade, the flames devour any magic they touch. The color of the blade is based off of the strength of the user. George and fred, being upper middling strength would be the weakest able to use it and their flames would be red. Yours would probably be violet or ultraviolet. It's not a dark spell, despite being derived from one, since the malice necessary to summon the sentient flames is not there. It does require a desire to cause great damage to something, but that can be powered by righteous anger or desire to end a threat."

" that is indeed a powerful spell. Now then, I brought the one from Grimmauld Place you mentioned, and let me tell you Sirius was not happy about going back there. I also retrieved the diadem from that marvelous hidden storage room. I'm going to have to clean out and catalog everything in there once I get the chance, who knows what other dark or dangerous artifacts lurk there. Now then, once we've destroyed these two there will only be how many left?" he placed the locket he had retrieved from the Black ancestral home in the same place as the locket with the frankly gaudy diadem next to it.

"Let's see, diary, locket, diadem, cup, ring, snake, me. Though I don't think the snakes been made yet and the event this summer that unlocked my metamorphic abilities also destroyed the shard in my head. I'd suggest you use full on fiend fire, if you are able, or phoenix fire if you can talk Fawkes into it. The shack itself is coated in wards and defenses so scorched earth is the safest strategy. The cup is more difficult, thanks to the fact that it's in the Lestrange vault in Gringotts. Any chance of claiming it under right of conquest?" she moved the beam of flames through the two soul jars reducing them to slag and causing more screaming.

"I'm sorry harry, but the right of conquest laws only pertain to foreign enemies in times of war, not domestic ones in times of civil war. Though the Longbottoms may well have a case for demanding their vaults, due to the assault and injury dealt upon them. I'll speak to Agusta about it. now, on to lighter affairs, did you really think Lockhart is a child rapist? Sure he's mostly a fraud, but I didn't think he was that malicious."

"I heard he passes out obliviates like candy, so I'm not sure, but it isn't a tough mental leap to make. I sure as hell know I'm never going to be around him by myself."

Dumbledore sighed, "Guess I'll need to figure out a replacement for him then, perhaps Remus, I know he's in the area to catch up with Sirius and to beg for forgiveness. but , I don't want the curse on the position to hurt him. Do you have any ideas, harry?"

"Get aurors to rotates out as teachers? The curse only seems to harm anyone if they weren't already planning on only doing one year, and for Defense Against the Dark Arts it seems like someone whose usual job is exactly that would make the best teachers."

"If only it were that easy, by inviting the ministry to send aurors for teachers we'd be opening up ourselves to much greater oversight and meddling. I like the rotation idea, I'll talk to a few of my prospectives to see if I can set up something. Now then, I believe we have some pizza to eat if it isn't all gone yet." dumbledore vanished the remains of the horcrux and fixed the grass then the two wandered into the Weasley home to laughter and merriment which was in stark contrast to the heavy task they had just completed.


End file.
